Pancreas transplant more beneficial to diabetes patients compared to other treatments

Pancreas transplantation (PTx) re-establishes an auto-regulating source of endogenous insulin responsive to normal feedback controls. It is a type of surgery in which a person with diabetes receives a healthy donor pancreas while the natural pancreas is not removed. People with a successful pancreas transplant no longer need insulin and have good blood sugar control.

Researchers have found in a new study that Pancreas transplantation is more beneficial to diabetes patients compared to other treatments.

Results of pancreas transplantation continue to improve and up to 90% of recipients with diabetes enjoy freedom from both insulin therapy and the need for close glucose monitoring following the procedure, according to a new paper published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

"A pancreas transplant mitigates changes in blood sugar levels, eliminates the daily stigma and burden of diabetes, restores normal blood sugar regulation in patients with complicated diabetes, and improves quality of life and life expectancy," said Jonathan A. Fridell, M.D., Chief, Abdominal Transplant Surgery of the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, Ind. "Despite steadily improving outcomes coupled with expanded patient selection criteria to include some patients with type 2 diabetes, a decline in pancreas transplant surgeries has occurred in recent years."